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RECENT SERMON

Here, you'll find recent sermons from Trinity Lutheran Church. In addition, you may find up to four prior sermons on the link below.

HOLY CROSS SERMON
by Pr Fred S. Opalinski

Since the 4th Century, the church has observed September 14 as Holy Cross Day, or as it's called on the Roman calendar, "Triumph of the Cross."

Just for fun (actually to have a beginning to this sermon!), I decided to look up "cross" and related words in my college dictionary. (The Webster's New World, copyright--ahem--1966!)

It listed 35 definitions for 'cross', both as noun and verb. (Don't worry. I'll spare you the details!) Following those entries were 69 words that began with it: from crossbeam and crossbow to crossroad, cross stitch and crosswalk.

Cross is certainly a part of the language. And it's part of the scenery as well. "Telephone poles," someone remarked at Bible study. Also high tension lines, intersections, and church steeples (though not ours!), and, of course, ubiquitous jewelry.

I remember reading the account of a woman who went into a jewelry store to buy
a cross necklace for a gift. "We have lots to choose from," said the cheery clerk, pointing to a display case. "Did you want a plain one or one with the little man
on it?"

One with the 'little man'??? It is all about meaning, isn't it? It's absolutely about definition, dictionary or otherwise. We'll have/we had some fun at Rally Day this morning, looking at the variety of crosses I was able to assemble from around the church, asking with each, "What does it say to you? Plain, or decorated, or with the little man, what does it say?

The chapel cross has a "Christus Rex" on it, Latin for 'Christ the King.' It shows the ascended Lord Jesus at the right hand--the power hand--of the Father, nail wounds visible, but with a kingly crown, not thorns, on his head. And he's wearing priest's robe, rather than a loin cloth. In the language of Hebrews, Jesus is the 'great high priest' of heaven, interceding on behalf of those he died for.

The big cross behind the pulpit (upstairs) is a cross of witness/evangelism.
The symbols of the four evangelists--Matthew, Mark, Luke and John--are carved into its arms. And the square surrounding the Lamb of God symbolizes the four compass points: Christ's love to be shared North, South, East and West from this place..."even to the ends of the earth," as Jesus put it.

Several of the old crosses around the church--like the one we've placed at the columbarium--have an IhS on them, the first three letters of "Jesus" in Greek. Some have lines coming from the center, like rays of the Risen Son. Others, I guess, are purely decorative.

Often crucifixes are bloodied and tortured, like the painting here/in the narthex we recently received as a gift. But this crucifix, an ordination gift from my home congregation, shows Jesus at peace, under control, trusting in God, the Father.

"The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing," writes St. Paul, "but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God."   That power was evident to the Israelites in today's first reading. You know the story well, I'll bet.

On the verge of the Promised Land, in fact after a victory over some of the Canaanites, the Israelites complain about the food that God's been providing them. "We detest this miserable food," they moan, like high school kids at the cafeteria. "Why have you brought us out of Egypt?" If I were the Lord, I'd probably respond, "Duh, because you asked me to." But, instead, God sends poisonous snakes to bite the people. (There's a way to get their attention!)

It was a serpent who beguiled Eve and Adam in the garden, remember, giving rise to that first sin. And now these snakes show how profoundly that sin had poisoned all of God's people. "The wages of sin is death," writes Paul. "And many of them died," it reports.

So the people pleaded with Moses to ask God to take away the snakes. "We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you," they confess. At Bible Breakers we talked about the relationship between that scene and how we prepare for worship each week with the rite of confession and forgiveness. Sin poisons us as well, fills us with pain, tears us apart. Separated from God--denying his goodness--we are separated from one another. The world and our lives are filled with evidence of that truth. Am I right?

"So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, 'Make a poisonous serpent, and set it on a pole; and everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.'" Notice that God didn't take away the snakes or the bites. The evidence of their rebellion against God remained. But God gave them an out, a reprieve. The very reminder of their sin--the cause of their pain--was lifted high on a pole to bring healing and hope. Sin and death were not to be the last words; but rather life and salvation.

Because that's the kind of God we have, dear friends. We have made a mess of things. But God wants--makes way for--something better. We've turned our
backs on God, maybe even thumbed our noses, but God simply won't take 'no'
for an answer.

In today's gospel, we heard Jesus tell his nocturnal visitor Nicodemus, "Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life."

The serpent lifted up in the wilderness provided an antidote to the poison: life continued for the chosen ones. The Son lifted up on the cross provides a whole new way of life...for the world.

"God so loved the world," says Jesus. God loves people who reject him, snub him, don't care about him or believe in him. (Perhaps we've been there, done that.) God loves the very ones who say, "I don't need God. There is no God." God loves not just Christians, not just the church, but--hear it!--the world.

The word for 'love' John uses is an important one, by the way. Many of you know that there are three Greek words with very different meanings, but all translated L-O-V-E in English. There's brotherly love-- philos ­ -- as in Philadelphia. It's the love of siblings, pals, buddies, love with a sense of mutuality...give and take.

Then there's eros , erotic love: physical, impassioned, self-gratifying, sometimes down-and-dirty love...sometimes paid-for love.

But here John 3:16 writes that "God so ag?pe -d the world. Ag?pe: self-giving, serving, bestowing, sacrificial love. It's love that doesn't count cost--ever! It's love that expects no repayment. Ag?pe is always on the give; never on the take. It is the love we see on the cross, turning a torturous execution into the gift of life, abundant and eternal. It is the only love that is everlasting.

To be signed with that cross in baptism is to be connected to that Jesus, to that expression of love. To make the sign of the cross (+), is to remind ourselves of God come to earth and to us (vertical), and of God's sending us to others (horizontal) with that same ag?pe.

That's why John 3.17 is just as important as 3.16. Jesus continues, "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him." I have to wonder, if God is so in the business of saving, why the church is so often in the business of condemning .

God doesn't love us so that we can draw lines in the sand: "We're in; you're out!", or so that we can point fingers at the sinners, as though we're not.

"How much does God love us?" we ask the kids. (Hand outstretched:) "This much!" God loves us to make us lovers. God embraces us so that we become people who embrace. Give gives to us to make us givers. God saves us to be the bearers of that life and salvation... for all the world.

How much? This much! Thanks be to God.

Amen.

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